If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

How do I create a new Custom Template?

The Zen Cart® templating system uses a CSS based layout.

In this article, CAPITALIZED words refer to a folder or language that you choose. We use CUSTOM for your template and ENGLISH for your language by default. Change these if needed.

First, open includes/templates/ and create a new folder. You can call it anything you like, though it is best not to make it too long and to use underscores instead of spaces. We will call it /CUSTOM here, so everywhere we write /CUSTOM from now on, you should replace it with your own preferred folder name.

Create an empty folder inside your new template directory and call it images so you should have includes/templates/CUSTOM/images/.

Next, copy the includes/templates/template_default/css directory and place the folder and its files in your new includes/templates/CUSTOM/ folder.

You can also create the following empty folders inside your new template directory:

/common/sideboxes/templates

Then you copy the file called includes/templates/template_default/template_info.php, and put it inside includes/templates/CUSTOM/. Next, open includes/templates/CUSTOM/template_info.php in your text editor. Change the information below between each set of single quotes to suit your new template. Remember to keep the single quotes. Your template name does not need to be identical to your folder name, and you can use spaces to make it read well, but it is best to make them similar. Leave the space between the quotes for the template screenshot field empty for now, since you don’t have one yet.

Open your Admin panel and navigate to tools -> template selection. Click the Edit button, then choose CUSTOM from the dropdown menu and click the Update button. Now, navigate to tools -> layout boxes controller and at the bottom of the page click the Reset button.

Your new template is now enabled and ready for you to customize. See the related articles below for more tips on customizing. There are many more articles available via the search and via the FAQ Home Page link.

About Language Files

In the /includes/languages/ folder there is also support for customizations for your new template too.

It is advisable to clone the /includes/languages/english/html_includes/responsive_classic/ into a new folder named according to your custom template, such as /includes/languages/english/html_includes/CUSTOM/

What about english.php?

It's advisable to leave the main /includes/languages/english.php untouched, and to put your customizations into a new file: /includes/languages/CUSTOM/english.php (ie: if you want to customize the text for FOOTER_TEXT_BODY, put *just* the define for FOOTER_TEXT_BODY into your CUSTOM/english.php file (no need to copy the entire file; in fact, upgrades are easier if you only put the individual changes there).